Louis Henry Turner

Louis Turner is one of the men named on the Bottesford ‘church list’ of WW1 Servicemen, but his service record has not been identified.

Family background

Louis Henry Turner was born in July 1879 in Bottesford, the second of four sons of William and Martha Turner. William Turner was a gardener who came from Ashurst in Kent, where he was born in 1853. Martha (neé Patch) was from Norton, Somerset, born in 1849. They married at Christ Church, Battersea, on the 19^th August, 1875. After Martha’s death (after 1911), William Turner retired in 1919 and moved to Carlton, Nottingham. He married Elizabeth Annie East on 27th November 1920 and in 1937 the couple moved to Hayes, Bromley where William died in 1949.

By the 1881 census the family had moved to Bottesford and lived on Easthorpe Road. The 1891 census also records them as resident on Easthorpe Road. There were now four sons, all at school: Frederick W. (aged 12), Louis Henry (aged 11), Ernest (aged 10) and William (aged 8). There was also a boarder named William Sopp, a 21 year old groom from Kirdford. Sussex. William Turner gave his occupation as a gardener.

Kelly’s Directory for 1908 records that Mr William Turner was the private gardener to the Rector of Bottesford,Canon William Vincent-Jackson MA JP. He also worked for the Duke of Rutland, and was a bell ringer in the belltower of St Mary’s, Bottesford.

In 1901 Henry Louis Turner was aged 22. He was living in St Pauls, Deptford and working as a clothier’s assistant. By 1911 he was aged 31, living with his mother at 6 Leamington Villas, Westbourne Park and was working as a shop assistant. The exact circumstances are uncertain, as his father William was still living in Bottesford in 1911.

Military record

No military records have been identified, although his name is on the Bottesford service list and he would have been within the age-range for conscription. There are Medal Index Cards for at least six Louis Turners who served, respectively, in the Manchester Regiment, Royal Field Artillery, Kings Own Shropshire Light Infantry, York and Lancaster Regiment, Durham Light Infantry and the 102^nd Training Reserve. The last mentioned might be considered. Information about this man is held by Forces War Records, whose information makes an association with Hounslow, London. He was issued with Silver War Badge B102723 on the 24^th February 1919, after serving four years from the 9^th December 1915 to the 14^th January 1919, without leaving the British Isles. However, it must be repeated that none of this information can safely be assigned to the man from Bottesford.

Life after the war

Louis Turner married Doris Mabel Warr at Hammersmith, London, on January 2nd 1917. The couple had seven children: Enid Adams (b.26th February, 1919), Lawrence (b.27th September, 1920), Gladys (Jill) Wilding (b.13th October,1921), Sylvia (b. and died 1923), Marcia Berry (b.1924), Norman (b.1925) and Audrey Patricia Preston (b.11th March, 1928).

Louis Turner is recorded on the London Electoral registers 1832-1965, his address at 161 Mortimer Road Willesden. In the 1939 population register, Louis Henry Turner, born 6th July 1879, a gent’s clothier and salesman, lived at 161 Mochmor (a spelling error and should be read as Mortimer) Road, Willesden. With him were his wife Doris Mabel, born 7th August 1896, and daughters Enid, Gladys, Marcia, Patricia and son Norman.

In WWII the house at Mortimer Road was hit by a bomb and the family moved in with Doris’ sister Marjorie and husband Frank Johnson and their son Eric. After the war Louis and Doris moved to 52, Roxeth Grove, South Harrow with their family.

Louis Henry Turner died 11th March 1946 at his home in South Harrow. He was 67 years old.

Acknowledgements:

We are grateful for the information that we have had from Mrs Barbara Whitton (Ernest Turner’s granddaughter) and Mrs Linda Preston. Thank you also to Jonathan D’Hooghe for his efforts in tracing Louis’s military service.